Readers write

Who is the small minority?There seems to be a concerted attempt by individuals in our local aviation community to misrepresent the Community Airport Restoration Effort (CARE) and its goals. They label us as a small but vocal minority. There are only 267 individuals with Federal Aviation Administration licenses in the Tahoe Truckee Airport District (TTAD) – less than 1 percent of our community. It would appear that they are a small but vocal minority. Another label they try and paint CARE with is that we are a group who are trying to close the airport. CARE’s stated mission is “to preserve our mountain community’s quality of life and the long-term viability of the Truckee Tahoe Airport by supporting an airport board that will tackle the issues of…”There is nothing about closing the airport in there. In fact, perhaps some of the more observant of our local aviation community may notice that CARE is working toward the “long-term viability” of the airport.They suggest that CARE is active for self-serving reasons. Well yes, they’re right. We want “to preserve our mountain community’s quality of life.” Both self-serving and community serving. The aviators? They presumably want to preserve their freedom to fly whatever, whenever, wherever, without regard to any consequences.CARE is endorsing three candidates in the upcoming election. In order to gain CARE’s endorsement the three candidates, Kathleen Eagan, Mary Hetherington, and Paul Vatistas, each had to commit to adhere to CARE’s mission. So they too will work toward the long-term viability of the airport by recognizing and working toward solving the issues that are accruing at the airport. Please listen to what they have to say and consider voting for them in November.Andrew Terry TruckeeTruly TruckeeClaudia Gibbens and I, Carol Pauli, co-chairs for the 30th anniversary of the Truckee Championship Rodeo, thank the people who helped make this rodeo a success.To our sponsors, you have become a part of local cowboy history over the years. Our services-in-kind sponsors include Aqua Trucking, Eagle Crest, Sittre Excavating, Cordell Painting, Curran Distributing and the Tahoe Donner Equestrian Center. Rick Bartlett, Robin Diamond and Tullen Valdez of Coors, what a great crew!Rob at the Sierra Sun and the lads at KTKE 101.5 both deserve thanks. Our committee deserves kudos for the hours of labor involved in producing such an event: B R Pierce, Dave Summers, Richard Waller, Laurie Waller, Greg Holm, Cathie McEneaney, Rusty Pauli, Michelle Michaud, Joanne Paollilo and John Gaston.Then there are the countless volunteers who come out to make the weekend a community event: all the Grand Entry folks, the Pop Warner Football kids, the security folks from Reno. Thank you!We had a little rain and a little hail and we commend those who stayed till the bitter end. It was wild and wooly, truly Truckee and truly rodeo!Carol Pauli, co-chair2004 Truckee Championship RodeoCounty study misses the markAs a Soda Springs resident and business owner, I found your front-page article regarding the Donner Summit Economic Development Study to be one-sided and incomplete. In fact the entire article seemed cut-and-pasted from the study, and contained no actual information from any other source.No opinions were sought from Summit residents or businesses regarding the study and/or its findings, and no reference was made to the availability of the actual report (http://docs.co.nevada.ca.us/dscgi/ds.py/view/collection-8591 or through the Community Development Agency planning department). The report itself contains 90 pages of findings, recommendations, and questionable statistics (though, to be fair, what statistics aren’t questionable?). If this issue is worthy of front-page space in the Sierra Sun, then isn’t it worthy of some unbiased investigative effort? Had the reporter bothered to ask Donner Summit residents for our opinions, he would have found that most of us don’t agree that “Soda Springs is not special,” and that we aren’t unanimously if favor of being “special” if it means adding parking lots, street lights, towering signs, and a mall with a Starbucks.If we wanted all that specialness in our backyards, we’d have moved to Truckee. Lori Van MeterSoda Springs